This is (unfortunately) the hardest trainer battle in a story mode.
Anonymous No.51485862 View ViewReport Quoted By:
>No free potion to cheese it with
>No type advantage moves yet.
>No opportunity to grind prior.
And the difficulty comes from it being essentially a coin toss if you win or not. Arguably the rival having Turtwig is harder because it can up its defence. So you're either doing less damage or wasting a turn to lower it.